Connor Lacey's Adventures of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - The Beginning of the End
Connor Lacey's Adventures of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - The Beginning of the End is a episode of Connor Lacey's Adventures of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic made by Connor Lacey. Plot The episode begins with the Mane Six and Spike racing to Canterlot Castle, having received an emergency summons from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Twilight Sparkle fears another villain has appeared with plans of revenge or world domination. However, when they arrive to the castle, Celestia and Luna are perfectly happy, and there is no crisis, despite the nature and swiftness of their summons. They explain that Equestria is enjoying its longest period of peace in recent years, largely thanks to Twilight and her friends. Because of this, Celestia and Luna have decided to retire and leave the protection of Equestria to the Mane Six. Twilight is stunned by such a sudden decision and questions her ability to rule in Celestia and Luna's place. But they assure her that she is ready, having observed her grow and overcome many challenges over the years, and the rest of her friends agree. Twilight is even more overwhelmed when Celestia and Luna state that the transfer of power from them to the Mane Six will only take a few days. As she goes into a tailspin of stress and worry, her friends calm her down from her "classic Twilight-ing" and remind her of all the memorable times they overcame adversity together, including King Sombra, Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, and Cozy Glow. With her friends' support, Twilight feels more confident about her and her friends' sudden role. Meanwhile, somewhere in a forest, Queen Chrysalis expresses her unhinged desire for revenge upon Twilight and her friends, and she suddenly vanishes in a swirl of black smoke. In Tartarus, Tirek and Cozy Glow continue to serve their imprisonment sentences, with Tirek becoming increasingly annoyed by Cozy's efforts to befriend him, when they suddenly vanish from their jail cells in the same manner as Chrysalis. Elsewhere, a magical insignia is carved into the ground, restoring the body of King Sombra. In a remote part of Equestria, Chrysalis, Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Sombra appear in a strange cavern, unaware of who transported them. The one who summoned them is revealed to be the blue-coated ram Grogar, an ancient and powerful villain thought to be a figure of legend. Grogar explains that he has brought the villains together to get rid of Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Having observed all the villains' defeats at the hands of the Mane Six, Grogar has identified the secret to their many victories: working together. He demands that the villains team up with him to finally take the ponies down. Sombra refuses to join forces with the other villains, however, and vows to retake the Crystal Empire on his own. Grogar encourages the overconfident Sombra to try and take over the Empire by himself, saying if he fails, he must submit to Grogar's will or else be sent back to the shadows. Sombra agrees to the ultimatum, and Grogar sends him away to the Crystal Empire. While Sombra is away, Grogar tells Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow to try and work together. At the School of Friendship, Starlight Glimmer finds Twilight in her office; her spiral of self-doubt gets worse and worse as she races to get everything ready for Celestia and Luna's retirement in a few days. With her and her friends about to assume the role of ruling Equestria, Twilight leaves Starlight in charge of her castle and school. Much like Twilight's earlier meltdown in Canterlot, Starlight has a meltdown and questions her ability to be in charge. When Twilight expresses her utmost confidence in Starlight's ability, Starlight returns the sentiment back at Twilight. But Twilight remarks that running a school is not the same as running an entire kingdom, and she gets even more stressed out. Meanwhile, King Sombra begins his new, one-pony assault on the Crystal Empire. As he invades, he uses his magic to bring the Crystal Ponies and royal guards under his mind control, expanding his forces. Shining Armor rallies the remaining guards to battle while Princess Cadance sends an urgent S.O.S. to Twilight. However, when they realize they have forgotten to secure Flurry Heart, they race to her nursery and find Sombra holding her captive. Using Flurry as a hostage, Sombra secures Cadance and Shining Armor's complete surrender and gains control of both the Crystal Heart and the entire Empire. Upon receiving news of Sombra's return and takeover of the Crystal Empire, Twilight calls her friends together at the Castle of Friendship. Instead of alerting Celestia and Luna or relying on Discord, Twilight takes this opportunity to prove that she and her friends can handle things on their own. Without the use of the Crystal Heart, Twilight suggests using the Elements of Harmony to defeat Sombra, and the Mane Six retrieve the Elements from the Tree of Harmony while Starlight looks after the school. When the Mane Six arrive at the Crystal Empire, Sombra uses his magic to make them suffer their worst fears. However, they overcome Sombra's dark magic with the Elements of Harmony, and while Sombra is distracted, Spike helps Cadance regain control of the Crystal Heart. The Crystal Ponies are freed from Sombra's mind control, and the Mane Six use the Elements to vaporize Sombra into smoke. With Sombra defeated, Twilight and her friends celebrate their surprisingly easy victory, and Twilight feels a little more confident about their ability to rule Equestria in Celestia and Luna's place. Some time later, the Mane Six return the Elements to the Tree of Harmony. Suddenly, black smoke fills the tree's cave, and a giant black crystal pops out of the ground beneath the tree, destroying it and shattering the Elements of Harmony to pieces. King Sombra appears before the Mane Six, his earlier defeat having been a trick to lead him right to the Elements. With the ponies' greatest weapon destroyed, Sombra cackles victoriously. With both the Elements of Harmony and Tree of Harmony destroyed, King Sombra believes he has rid the Mane Six of their only means of defeating him. As Twilight Sparkle helplessly tries to reassemble the Elements from their fragments, her friends attempt to attack Sombra with physical force, but he effortlessly traps them in a cage of black crystals—impervious to Twilight's magic. With the Mane Six incapacitated, Sombra sets his sights of domination on all of Equestria, starting with Ponyville. As Sombra leaves to take the ponies of Ponyville under his control, Twilight feels confirmed in her inability to take Celestia and Luna's place. Pinkie Pie cannot think of anything uplifting to say, and the other ponies worry about their Ponyville friends and families. Twilight, determined to save her loved ones from Sombra, starts to dig a hole under the cage. Inspired by her resolve, her friends join her, and they eventually succeed in freeing themselves from the cage. In Ponyville, the Mane Six find all of their friends and families under Sombra's mind control, and Twilight's magic is not strong enough to free them. To make matters worse, vines from the Everfree Forest start to encroach upon Ponyville without the Tree of Harmony to keep them under control. Determined to save their loved ones and home, Twilight and her friends arm themselves with gardening tools and wage war on the creeping vines. With his army of mind-controlled ponies, King Sombra lays siege upon Canterlot. When he makes his way to the castle and finds it abandoned, he assumes control of the thrones. Back in Ponyville, the Mane Six continue to hold off the Everfree Forest's invading vines, but the vines grow faster than they can keep up with. All of a sudden, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Star Swirl the Bearded arrive to help them with their efforts. Star Swirl, having felt the Tree of Harmony's destruction, had alerted Celestia and Luna, and he offers to keep the forest under control with the princesses while Twilight and her friends go to Canterlot and stop Sombra. Twilight teleports herself and her friends to Canterlot's city limits, where their mind-controlled friends and families block their entry into the city. The ponies cannot bring themselves to fight back against their loved ones, instead trapping them in nets and turning their force on each other. When the mind-controlled forces overwhelm the Mane Six, Twilight teleports herself and her friends into the castle. There, the ponies find Discord free of Sombra's control. Without any other means of fighting Sombra, Twilight begs Discord to help them defeat him. Discord agrees, despite his misgivings about doing the ponies' work for them, and they fight past Sombra's brainwashed legion. In the castle throne room, Sombra creates black crystals all around the room. When the Mane Six and Discord enter to stop him, Sombra blasts at them with his magic. While Discord is easily able to fend off Sombra's blasts, he expresses further his hope that Twilight and her friends would defeat Sombra on their own. When Discord states Fluttershy is his favorite among the Mane Six, Sombra aims his magic directly at her, and Discord jumps in the way, taking the full brunt of the blast and falling. With Discord seemingly defeated, Sombra believes he has truly won. Discord, drained of his power and barely conscious, tells the Mane Six they do not need him, the princesses, or the Elements of Harmony to defeat Sombra. He says the six of them will always embody the virtues of harmony they each represent, and as long as they stand together, they will always triumph. As Sombra laughs off Discord's sentiment, the Mane Six stand firmly united against him, inspired by Discord's words. Sombra barrages the ponies with magic, but Twilight matches him blow-for-blow, saying no matter how many times they are knocked down, she and her friends will keep getting back up again and again. During Twilight and Sombra's final clash, Twilight joins hooves with her friends, and the magic within them ignites similarly to the Elements of Harmony from their resolve to protect Equestria. With a declaration of "friendship is magic!", the Mane Six's magic eradicates Sombra to dust, dispels his black crystals around the land, and frees the mind-controlled ponies from his spell. Celestia and Luna enter the throne room to find the Mane Six nursing Discord back to health. Twilight fears the princesses are disappointed that she did not alert them about Sombra right away and believes she is unfit to rule Equestria. However, Celestia remarks that a good leader knows when to ask for help, but a great leader has the courage to admit their mistakes and the strength to make up for them. While the princesses believe Twilight has proven she possesses these qualities, they admit that they unfairly put too much pressure on Twilight all at once, and they decide to continue ruling Equestria until Twilight is truly ready to take their place. Twilight is immensely relieved by the princesses' decision, but Discord is upset, revealing he merely pretended to be hurt during the battle against Sombra in order to inspire the Mane Six to defeat him. Regardless, the Mane Six are reminded of how much of an unstoppable force they are when they stand together. Meanwhile, back at Grogar's lair, Cozy Glow tries to foster teamwork between herself, Lord Tirek, and Queen Chrysalis. When Grogar enters, he shows them the moment of Sombra's defeat with his crystal ball, and he uses Sombra's hubris as an example to secure Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy's loyalty. Trivia * In this two-part episode, just as Grogar revived King Sombra, he also revived Megatron (G1), Thundercracker (G1), Skywarp (G1), Shockwave (G1), Bombshell (G1), Shrapnel (G1), Kickback (G1), Jetstorm (BM) and Tankor (BM). Transcript *''Connor Lacey's Adventures of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - The Beginning of the End/Transcript''